Young Girl’s Swimming Death Reminds Us to Maintain Vigilance at the Pool

The girl pronounced dead after being found unconscious at a public pool Friday June 26th in Winston Salem was just six years old. She was supposed to be under the watch of 2 adults and 8 lifeguards. How is it then that she died?

It used to be that when kids went swimming, they had a buddy. You always swam in pairs. If something happened, your buddy would find help. Did anyone instruct these kids on pool safety? Did anyone instruct these adults? How long was this poor girl in need of assistance before anyone noticed? Her mother told Fox 8 News:

"Some swimmer saw her on the bottom of the pool and went down to get help…(They) don't know how long she was down there."

Her father questioned this as well speaking to another local news station:

"There should have been more supervision," Britton said. "For her to be in 12 feet [end of the pool], something was wrong."

Kids need to be able to understand how to react to situations like these, and adults that are supposed to be monitoring their safety need to be trained and certified.

Many daily situations could be life threatening, but being aware of risk and having measures in place to reduce liability and promote safety should be the norm. It is a terrible tragedy that this child died, and it is our responsibility to find out what factors were responsible. Once armed with that knowledge, we will be better equipped to make sure that accidents like these don’t happen again.